Give Me Bernier Or Give Sutter Botulism – Kings @ Colorado Open Forum

Jonathan Quick was fighting the puck last night. Meanwhile, the team actually remembered how to play with the puck. If Jonathan Bernier isn’t in net tonight against the Colorado Avalanche, then perhaps we should just trade him. What the hell does it matter if you have an untested backup goalie if you never bother to test him?

The Avs just dumped Kyle Quincey. This would be a good thing for us if they didn’t get Steve Downie in return. If the Kings are angry (why doesn’t Hammond ever mention the anger factor this way – Kings lose, grrrrr players want smash!) Steve Downie is the perfect sponge for soaking up general hostility and retribution.

Speaking of villains, Kyle Clifford didn’t get suspended. Perhaps he’ll give it a more honest effort tonight, I mean if you are going to take a match penalty, make it count.

Anyways. That’s about all I’ve got. Exasperation will do that to you. I asked for an exciting game yesterday and I got one. So tonight the only prayer I’m going to send up to the hockey gods is, “Win.”

Seeing his body language and movement during the opening Phoenix possession I felt Quick clearly appeared tired and sluggish.

What amazed me is he still managed to keep an unconstrained Phoenix rush from winning by two goals in regulation.

I can’t wait for the next Coaching and Staff turnover. Lombardi is starting to remind of those old prison movies…you know the kind where the con states, “I though of everything, the heist was planned perfectly, only next time I’ll bring a mug along to keep an eye out!”

… I hope that scoring four goals against Phoenix will positively affect the confidence of the team when it comes to their play in the offensive end. That’s really my only hope for them at this stage. As far as I’m concerned, they battled Phoenix to a draw – and that’s progress, no matter how disheartening it was to give away a three-goal lead.

I’m tired of all of the rumours and the bullshit and how the GM’s in trouble and who’s headed where. None of that matters now. I have absolutely no care about the management of this team. I’ve had enough of them. They’ve ruined the team enough already, but I’m sure they’ll step in to do more damage before the season is over. Good for them.

I just want to see the players try to fight through all of it and continue to play competitive hockey.

“Seeing his body language and movement during the opening Phoenix possession I felt Quick clearly appeared tired and sluggish.‘

… Well, he’d better get used to it – because if Sutter doesn’t want to play Bernier at all, how often do you think he’ll play some scrub acquired from another team or some kid brought up from Manchester? It’s Quick or bust.

The kind of game I wanna see tonight other than scoring at least one goal. Extra physical. I wanna see Kopi get into a fight. I wanna see Brown demolish Duchene. I wanna see helmets flying when Greene hits them. I wanna see them getting checked into the bench. And for the zeebs I’d like to see Nolan or King not stickhandle around them but through them on “accident”. I know that sounds stupid but it’s time one of those dumbshits gets a little drilling.

Still dont think the Kings have enough talent in any scenario, but I think you guys are onto something with the coaching, too. Not defensive vs offensive, necessarily, but the actual spacing in the offensive zone is just terrible, the puck support, no one is in the right position, there is no flow to the attack. Every individual is on an island and theyre not creating anything together. Part of that is that there’s not enough talent out there to keep the puck effectively and get it into scoring areas, but tonight at least theyre playing even below their talent level.

Fuck we totally suck! Varlomov out playing Quick and down 3-0. Face it our guys are getting outworked and we look like losers what an embarrassment this is. Can not finish and nobody going to the net. On a Nash/Carter note we may need to bribe them to come play for LA. Rumor has it were not a big enough hockey market? For Nash to accept trade here and San Jose is? Not sure there are more loyal fans iin LA but our current team is hard to stomach most nights and we sell out all but 1 or 2 games the whole yr.

… Yeah, Darryl. Don’t put in Bernier, whatever you do. It’s not like Quick gave up four goals in his last game or is playing a back-to-back. Don’t even call time out, while you’re at it. Continue being retarded. It’s very beneficial to the hockey club.

This is fucking brutal. Kopitar has been horrible in the offensive zone. Really starting to question his overall talent level past his size and puck protection. The shot, the ability to take people off the rush, the ability to take it to the net, all suck ass.

Agreed Kopi is playing the worst hockey of his career he has no goal scoring touch this yr and when was the last time he scored on a shot coming down the middle. He’s lost his mojo and confidence and as he goes so does the rest of the team. BTW Kopitar is my favorite player and has been since he arrived here in LA but something is definitely not right with his game. Hope he can it going soon.

… The team looks like they’re not only a little tired, but also they’re playing like a team that knows there’s likely a trade in the works. One of the reasons I hate the usual hysteria around the trade deadline is that there’s going to be a bit of a lull among teams on the playoff bubble, where the Kings always seem to be (in their good seasons, anyway).

Players aren’t robots. Trades can and will affect the players’ lives in certain ways. It’s only natural that they’re going to have that in the back of their minds.

I agree, there’s gotta be a sense that anybody can get moved and they are playing very nervously.

I think they should move the deadline closer to playoffs anyway. With the parity in the league there isn’t much separating the teams on the bubble. Teams don’t know if they are buyers or sellers at this point.

“You’re playing and you think everything is going fine, but then 1 thing goes wrong and another and another and you try to fight back, but the harder you fight, the deeper you sink. Til you cant move, cant breathe cause you’re in over your head. Like quicksand.”

And now apparently the San Jose Sharks are one of the front runners to get Rick Nash, and I just saw on twitter from what looks to be a really reliable source that theyre not even having to talk about Joe Pavelski. Apparently Joe Thornton is on the phone with Nash all the time acting as Sharks assistant GM in a sense, talking up San Jose. Apparently he and Doug Wilson have sort of worked out this thing where, because GMs cant talk to the players on other teams, Doug Wilson has Thornton do it for him.

Its not from a big name known source like Bob Mckenzie or anything, but the guy seems to know people in the know in the Sharks organization, everything he’s been saying rings true to me, and this is just like Doug Wilson. “Yes, I want your best player. No, you can’t have my most attractive asset, Couture. No, you can’t even have Pavelski. Clowe? Hmm… maybe… Your best player for my 7th best player and a bunch of so-so crap? (But it’s young so-so crap!) I might consider this… yes…”

Helene Elliot going to have a field day after this game! Lombardi Better be gone soon! Does not really matter for this yr IMO we done. To much turmoil! Coaching changes, player movement, no chemistry. Brutal ! As a fan for last 35 yrs it’s tough as expectations were very high and now it just makes you sick to your stomach how much we underachieved this yr.

Hm. I know that Jack Johnson hasn’t been playing his best hockey and, to be completely honest, because I don’t live in California anymore, I don’t get to watch many games. So, this is the first game I’ve watched in quite a while. But, it doesn’t look like anyone is playing well. Although Johnson has made some pretty serious mistakes, so did Doughty and Clifford and Quick (even though I don’t think he should’ve started this game anyway) just to name a few.

The Kings D is not the problem. As the announcers pointed out earlier, the Kings D is 4rth best in scoring by defenseman in the league. The teams D is the 4rth best in goals against. Unfortunately the D is responsible for 24% of the Kings total goals (highest in the league.

If it wasn’t for our current D, the Kings would set a record for futility in offense. JJ is not the problem, and neither is DD. None of our D is really.

Yay Bernie. Go Bernie go!! You deserve it mate. If that’s what it took to give you a chance, so be it.
I was never convinced of DL’s coaching choice anyway.
A defensive oriented coach for a team that already played (was playing) good d and couldn’t score?

Ken Campbell of THN didn’t like it nor did Scott Burnside.
They were right. it didn’t change anything.

I agree Drew… and I think many fans were in the same boat. Many were waiting to see what Sutter would do before forming an opinion. Somehow we started picking up points when he got here but now I think reality has set in and it is what it was before.

I remember telling a guy after they picked up Sutter. “We suck at scoring and we are picking up another defense 1st coach, its not gonna work in the long run” its just DL being hard headed and using people from his past…which is why we are “Flyers west” and now have Sutter………If DL isn’t fired and Sutter gets a new contract I’m not renewing my season tickets.